^^^ It was bittersweet at best. It was the beginning of the end. Most, if not all the photographers became complacent, even arrogant and blatantly lazy: They were coasting on their name brand. Doesn’t matter who you are, how big your name is, and what creative vision you’ve brought in the past: If you’re no longer putting in your all, you don’t deserve the role, the job, the status, anymore. (It’s so odd how some people will continue to be loyal, and defend a name, a brand, when it no longer puts in the effort. And what’s even more odd is how personal and defensive they will take it when you criticize how lazy, how complacent a name/brand has become.)
That the socio-political unrest in fashion were just a few years away from manifestation to remove, eradicate and erase them from their ennui is almost deserved, in retrospect. The industry’s current creative-bankruptcy, and into an even more abysmal blackhole is deserving in that respect. We complained about how sloppy these creatives became back then— only to have them replaced with even sloppier, utterly incompetent creatives LOOOL
Admittedly, the 2010s was a messy fashion decade. But this current one is messier. …Will there be a messiest one before things start to get better???